My photographs are photographs of drawings I have made in certain places during certain times and under certain sensations. They are attempts to capture moments, to save experiences though the rhythm of the pencil. All our experiences have an impact on us. How strong or fleeting they might be, the impact stays always hard to measure. It is also characteristic for a photograph to entwine the two: positive and negative, white and black. One has the potential for two. Although we are used to see positive images, first there is a negative; a positive is formed only after light has travelled through a negative. So no matter how quickly it travels, darkness has always found its way there first. How does this kind of theory correspond with my life? John Keats wrote about the negative capability. For Keats it meant the artist’s ability to bear the many states of insecurity. I feel that is where drawings are derived. So I begin my work with pencil and paper, the tools of trial, thought and concentration. Drawing is something that follows ideas making them visual. Camera’s role is to apply them to the world, bring them to light, if you may. By photographing my drawings I can redefine their sizes, lighting conditions and materiality—I feel photography can even give mass for a line. And mass is accompanied by gravity, attraction and encounters. Combining the two techniques allows me to explore these foundational forces of our lives.

Jaana Maijala